


I Thought You Knew

by katling



Series: Cullrian Appreciation Week [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Dorian is oblivious, Fluff, M/M, until he isn't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-02
Updated: 2016-05-02
Packaged: 2018-06-05 21:59:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6725194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katling/pseuds/katling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is my little contribution for Day 1 of Cullrian Appreciation Week over on tumblr. The theme for today was: Courting.</p>
<p>Apparently, Cullen has been courting him. Dorian would have liked to have been told. Not that he minds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Thought You Knew

In retrospect, Dorian realised it had taken him a ridiculous amount of time to realise he was being courted. He’d feel embarrassed but he’d never actually _been_ courted before and certainly not in the Southern way. And Cullen hadn’t exactly explicitly _stated_ that he was courting him so he felt justified in not realising it was occurring. Which he realised sounded ridiculous when the nature of the gifts – small things but personal, meant for him and him alone – was taken into account.

Even so, he felt somewhat justified in feeling like he’d been smacked up the back of the head with a board when he looked down at the book he’d been ranting about to Cullen during their game of chess a couple of months ago. It was unobtainable in the Imperium and rare enough in the South but it was referred to repeatedly in some of the other books Dorian had been using for his research and he’d been grouchy about that and the fact he couldn’t seem to get his hands on a copy even with Josephine’s help.

He knew this copy, that he’d found sitting innocuously on his chair in the library, had to come from Cullen. Josephine would have left a note tucked into the book if she’d managed to find a copy and there was no note. And at one point during his rant, he remembered Cullen had made an offhand comment that he knew there had been a copy of the book in the library at Kinloch Hold. Dorian had been so startled by Cullen’s voluntary mention of the Ferelden Circle that he’d made a poor move on the chess board and promptly distracted himself with his cursing at his own stupidity and at Cullen’s smug smirk.

But now, here was the book and when he added the book to all the other little gifts he’d found sitting on his chair or in his room, well, he felt like he’d been hit up the back of the head with a board. He’d suspected the gifts had been from Cullen but he hadn’t dared to think about the ‘why’ behind them. But this? This book? No one would go to that sort of effort idly. At least, possibly they wouldn’t?

Dorian walked as calmly as he could manage down the stairs, through Solas’ room and along the walkway to Cullen’s office. The Commander was, as always, working but thankfully there were no little scouts or other assorted minions in the room so he could close the doors and lock them with impunity. He didn’t want this conversation to be disturbed. 

Dorian felt it was a measure of either how absorbed Cullen was in the report he was reading or how comfortable he was with Dorian’s presence… or both… that the Commander didn’t seem to realise what Dorian was doing until the last lock clicked into place. Only then did he raise his head with a look of surprise.

“Dorian, what…?”

Dorian held up the book. “You gave me this.”

It wasn’t a question and the Commander blushed beautifully at it. He dropped the report he’d been reading on his desk and swallowed.

“Uh… yes.”

“And the wine. And the etched goblets. And the cloak. And the pens.”

Cullen licked his lips and looked rather wary, as though he wasn’t sure where Dorian was going with this. “Yes?”

Dorian stared down at the book in his hand then forced his head up. If he was going to ask this question, he was going to damn well look Cullen in the eye while he did it.

“Are you… courting me?”

Cullen’s blush intensified and for a moment he simply sat there speechless. Then he squared his shoulders and gulped. “Yes.”

The book hit the floor with a dull thump and Dorian swarmed into Cullen’s lap. The Commander yelped and grabbed at Dorian’s waist to steady him even as he stared at Dorian with wide eyes.

“You…”

Dorian didn’t let him get any further words out. He cradled Cullen’s face in his hands and kissed him. The Commander’s hands tightened momentarily at his waist then he was wrapped up in Cullen’s arms and pulled tightly against the man’s body. He wriggled a bit without breaking the kiss when that brought parts of Cullen’s armour into uncomfortable proximity to his body but he could only chuckle when his action drew a low moan from the man he was kissing.

They broke apart and he caressed Cullen’s face and neck in fitful, almost nervous, movements. “This would have happened much sooner if you’d _told_ me what you were doing.”

Cullen swallowed hard and seemed to need a moment to reassemble his wits. Dorian felt rather smug that he’d managed to shatter the man’s composure so thoroughly with nothing more than a kiss and bit of a wriggle in his lap.

“I… I thought you knew,” Cullen said, sounding a little dazed. “You never returned any of the gifts.”

There were many things Dorian could have said right then about how he hadn’t _known_ who had been giving him the gifts. Suspected, surely, but not _known_. Or how he didn’t actually know the ins and outs of southern courtship rituals. But all of them could wait. Because Cullen was looking at him like _that_ and he wanted more of it.


End file.
